We’re in the very fortunate position of being able meet a lot of like minded people.

Investing in real estate tends to attract people who are fed up with the “status quo” of investing or careers or life and are looking for a vehicle to help them live another life, on their terms.

So we get to see a lot of successful action takers.

But the nature of the business is that we come across a lot of people who don’t get anything done as well.

And sometimes it’s beneficial to study them.

It’s difficult to get extreme action takers to explain why and how they get so much done.

We’ve tried many times and they all have different answers.

One guy we know well is 100% gifted at selling his properties for top dollar … but it’s difficult to duplicate his processes.

Another lady we know accomplishes more in a day than most in a week … but it’s difficult to bottle up her motivations and make them your own.

So today we’re going to comment on the common things we see in people who don’t get anything done and ultimately fail at many things.

And we know they fail because they tell us.

Let’s be clear here though – they’re not failures at life by any means.

They’ve just failed at investing or staring a business or flipping a property.

They’re amazing in other areas of their lives … family, friends, health etc.

But in business and in real estate … they’re very good at getting nothing done.

Excellent at it.

The best!

So with that, here are some of our observations:

First, they don’t put a stick in the ground and commit to any one thing.

Instead, they chase.

They chase the mutual fund with the highest return (last year).

Then they chase the income property strategy that worked in Arizona and try it in Ontario.

Then they follow and read (and believe) a lot of money making proclamations on Facebook and Twitter.

Then they come to a real estate investing class and are looking to make $100K before they’ve made $1.

And the worst…

They believe that making money does not have to involve hard work.

They are caught chasing money instead of building something money is attracted to.

And who can blame them. With all the talk online about people making a killing at almost everything we’re all trained to think we’re working too hard and that someone else has found the secret money tree.

The next observation…

They’re looking for guarantees.

Will investing in real estate guarantee a return of 20% or higher – every year no matter what?

Will starting their new website generate thousands of dollars for them while they read books on the beach?

Will investing in that RRSP mortgage product guarantee a hassle free investing process?

They want certainty in a world that is always changing – so it’s impossible to get it.

The next observation:

They’re looking to understand the entire process right up front.

So if they’re going to invest in a property they want to know everything that could possible happen.

They want to know everything necessary to turn $5,000 on advertising their new website into profits.

They want to know every single step required for success in whatever venture they’re considering.

They want to know 100% of everything right up front and because that’s impossible they never begin.

It’s possible to know 80% of what it takes to make money in any endeavour – but never 100%.

These observations are common in almost any walk of life.

When I was a sales manager at a U.S. software company it was exactly the same.

The best sales reps:

Committed 100% to the job.

Didn’t expect a specific guaranteed amount of income before they actually began to work.

Didn’t know exactly what they were getting into but pushed forward anyway.

So to summarize, we’ve found people who get nothing done and then as a result naturally fail at whatever it is they kinda/sorta try to do:

1. Chase new opportunities endlessly and switch strategies at the first sign of a new shiny opportunity.

2. Want guaranteed results.

3. Want to know 100% of everything required to succeed before they begin.

And if you confront them with this they’ll deny it.

Look…

We’ve been guilty at this ourselves in lots of areas of our lives.

But in the areas of our lives that we’ve been fairly successful we did the exact opposite of these things.

For example, when we decided to focus on real estate in a big way this was our thinking…

We thought that if we knew, in our hearts, that real estate would be part of our lives forever anyway then why don’t we commit to becoming really really good at it.

We didn’t really know what that meant other than starting to share what we were learning with others in the best possible way we could.

That was it.

So we started an ugly website, sent out a few emails, began running numbers on properties, held classes with three people in them.

But that decision to just COMMIT changed the simple idea of “getting our real estate licenses to avoid Realtors” into…

Starting our own Brokerage that now works with hundreds of clients, has an amazing team and has helped investors buy over 1,500 investment properties generating millions rents.

We did not have the goal of “starting our own brokerage” when we began.

We just committed to doing some good work and pushed forward from there.

We also didn’t have any guarantee of income.

We just committed to trying to offer value in our own way, with no promise of a return and pushed forward.

We also didn’t know 100% of what we were getting into.

We barely knew 50%, but we learned as we went. And we’re still learning.

It’s so easy to be distracted in today’s world that one of the biggest competitive advantages you can give yourself is blocking out those exact distractions.

If you’re looking to start something new in your life, try this:

For a single day… an entire day.

Turn off the Internet. Turn off your phone.

Get out a blank piece of paper and write out a few things you things you could see yourself being committed to over the next ten years.

What can you really see yourself getting excited about over the next ten years?

What is it that you always talk about that drives your friends insane? That’s probably what you should focus on 😉

Once you chosen your niche begin looking around at how people are making money in that niche.

Map out how you plan to make money in it (for us that involved studying marketing in a big way).

We can guarantee you this … whatever you write down won’t be exactly the way things turn out – but you need to begin.

With this decision in hand you can now bring your own unique voice to this niche.

For example,

Do you like to write? Maybe you begin writing articles online about this niche.

Do you like to talk? Maybe you start a YouTube channel discussing your niche.

Do you like to network with people? Maybe you become the master of connecting people on Facebook and Twitter.

Do you like to find gems of good information and share them? Maybe you start a blog.

Do you like to get your hands dirty with properties? Maybe you pick up a rental property?

There’s no guarantee by starting any of this that you’ll make money.

But you begin to build.

And that’s when the magic kicks in…

What you’ll find is that people are attracted to other people who are doing stuff.

Very profound words and I agree with pretty much all of it. What I’ve observed is that there are people who are doers and then there are others that just plod along. The doers hang around with other doers and avoid the plodders. Plodders tend to associate with other plodders primarily. I consider myself too much of a doer, overworked actually, but I’m trying to change that.

That aside, I would love to pick your brain regarding my situation, and it doesn’t have to be a long conversation. I’ve been struggling for too long trying to decide if I should sell 1 of my two rental properties, both in Burlington, very close to your office… if you’re still on Mainway. I live in Burlington as well. I’m carrying a line of credit debt that bothers me in a big way. It’s basically almost the amount of one of the rentals and I have no other debt. I would not expect from you any advice on what to do one way or the other, but my brother recently got me thinking by saying to me, “What are you waiting for, interest rates to go up and house prices to drop?… That eventually will happen and then I’ll be kicking myself in a big way….but I have tenants that both love where they are and have told me that they’re not interested in moving. I’ve completely renovated both properties. The first one I bought 27 years ago in a down market has at least doubled in value. The other place I bought 4 years ago, now renovated, is up 40 to 50%. I need to convert a carport to a garage and it will be completely finished inside and out.

A lot of money was spent to renovate those houses and working on those 2 houses took it’s toll on myself and my family and it all has to be worthwhile in the end. I would really appreciate any input you have. I’ve attended one of your events read the emails you send out and you’re obviously biased toward owning and renting but any input regarding our situation would be appreciated. I can call you or you can call me during the day, I can call you when it works for you.

I would like to see an answer to Rinaldi’s request for input int his situation wrt his 2 rental properties.I’m not nosy,but I think your answer would be valuable to those who share similar situations or merely for learning p urposes. I enjoy & appreciate your open sharing of your knowledge & experience.

Tom and Nick Karadza are real estate professionals that are focused on helping real estate investors in the Greater Toronto and Golden Horseshoe areas create income to live life on their terms. They are active real estate investors and in 2008 they launched Rock Star Real Estate Inc., a Canadian real estate brokerage focused exclusively on real estate investments.
Together with their team of professionals based in Oakville, ON, Tom and Nick have worked with investors to help acquire over 300 million dollars of investment real estate and implement profitable investing strategies across southern Ontario.